THEY TURN RESEARCH TURNS INTO GOLD

THE HARTFORD COURANT

Behind a broken door in a trailer in the ugliest part of the University of Connecticut's Storrs campus, exciting research is under way that can bring significant jobs to Connecticut and enhance the state's greatest asset: its brainpower.

This is UConn's Biotechnology Center, a beehive of marketable ideas that should be prized for its potential to jump-start and diversify the state's economy. That this incubator for innovation is housed in a temporary structure is symbolic of how state leaders undervalue and undermine their public research university by skimping on funding and making commitments they fail to keep.

Ask Thomas Chen, the center's director and an internationally known scientist. He was lured to UConn 18 months ago from the University of Maryland to develop opportunities for scientists to team up with businesses and use UConn research to tap into a burgeoning biotechnology market.

Yet after just a few months on the job, Mr. Chen is frustrated. A promised biotechnology park in Storrs appears dead and the state grant that paid Mr. Chen's salary and funded some of the center's brightest ideas is in limbo. Momentum, he says, has slowed to "zero."

Mr. Chen was an extraordinary catch who brought with him a recipe for turning research into gold. By manipulating the genes of tilapia, a tasty white fish native to Africa and the Middle East, he has produced a strain that grows larger and faster. He has persuaded a Pennsylvania entrepreneur to produce the fish in abandoned mills in Thompson and, soon, Windham. The researcher and the entrepreneur think that fish farming, away from open water, has tremendous potential for meeting seafood demand at a time when natural fishing grounds are being depleted.

What's more, Mr. Chen is negotiating with a Maine company to move its seaweed-growing operation to the former American Thread mills in Windham that are being renovated through state economic development funds. The seaweed would be used to raise small abalone, which Mr. Chen describes as much better than clams or oysters.

As this three-part editorial series will show, the Biotechnology Center is only one of many laboratories from which UConn researchers are meeting the needs of state businesses. Beneficiaries range from United Technologies down to a start-up floral operation in Eastford -- and their customers and workers.

For a state investment of a few million dollars a year, the payoff can be manyfold. Successful research yields more grants and revenues for the university. Top-flight researchers like Mr. Chen attract the best students, who are likely to remain in Connecticut.

The state's Critical Technologies Research Program was established during the Weicker administration to turn brainpower into jobs. It has been demonstrably successful, with more than 40 companies praising UConn for the help they are getting in product development. Yet the initial $6 million annual state commitment has dwindled to half, and this year's pared-down request has yet to be honored.

This retraction of support for a can't-lose proposition reflects short-sightedness that is hard to understand. The Rowland administration repeatedly has said job creation is a priority.

Connecticut cannot afford to slip farther behind in building on its considerable base in biotechnology. And it cannot afford to lose an enthusiastic ambassador like Mr. Chen.